Safe and Sound
by segsyreid
Summary: "...Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound." A new case hits close to home for Spencer Reid, and after solving the missing link for the murders of over 40 girls, he is faced with an even harder challenge of becoming involved with the very thing that ruined his own childhood.
1. Chapter 1

**New story. I'm going to tackle two at a time, both completely different than the other, since it is summer and I don't really have anything else to do. **

**This one is a lot darker than my other one, more faced on emotions around a relationship that has taken forever in development, and seems to have a lot of history.**

**Metaphorically inspired by Taylor Swift's "Safe and Sound", hense the title.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Criminal Minds, the show would bomb. Not gonna lie. I do, however, own the story line, and the crime that took me forever to make sense of myself. Oh, and the Gerone family is mine. I dibs them. Nose game.**

**K enjoy!**

_Spencer heard a crash, which awoke him from his deep slumber. He looked at the clock, which read 11:34, and while his mother was well past asleep and for the most part, so should the reasonably quiet neighborhood this late on a Wednesday night. Faintly, voices could be heard from out the window, intriguing the 14 year old enough to get up and quietly tip-toe his way to the windowsill and lean out just enough to see the sources of the noise, from next door._

_The house wasn't just any other house. Julia Gerone and her two parents resided in the house since he was two years old and she was just born, and the two were friends long enough just to know each other's secrets. Spencer always assumed his life was hard, and on a regular basis, it was. But when comparing it to the outwards happy family next door, it was like the contrast of heaven and hell._

_'Julia might be in trouble.' the young boy thought to himself, placing his large glasses on his face. Usually he would pass it by and let it go, but he knew that his best friend may be in trouble. So with all of this strength, he lifted himself over the windowsill and onto the soft grass, sprinkled with fresh July rain, which splashed his lower legs as he darted across the field and over to her basement window, knocking slightly._

_He waited patiently for the drape to be pulled across, and a soft, startled face came into view. Immediately, he saw her bruises which lined her eyes and the cuts surfacing on the flesh over her cheekbones. She looked terrified. "Julia!" he whispered, pushing the window open from the outside. Before he could pass to high, she slammed it back down again._

_"Spencer, I need you to go away." she said sternly._

_"What happened?" his voice was panicked, but it didn't matter. She shook her head and nervously crossed her arms._

_"It's nothing Spencer, nothing that concerns you. I have this handled, now if you'd mind, I need some sleep." she started closing the drapes, but his hand slamming onto the cool window stopped her. "Spencer!" she hissed, glancing nervously behind her. "Go away."_

_"Not until I can help you." _

_"You can help me by going away, Spencer. I promise you, I'm fine." she turned her head and saw a large gash on the side of her cheek. He loosened the firmness of his hand on the window, and watched her terrified eyes hide behind the curtain and her light shut off, not effecting the loud screaming in the least._

_There was terribly loud screaming from her room now, familiar screaming that Spencer knew was coming from the mouth of his best friend. He closed his eyes and sprinted back to his house, getting right on the phone and calling the police. "911, what's your emergency?"_

_"I would like to report domestic violence at 156 Fords Street."_

=_OO_=

"We need someone new on this guy." Hotch said as he stormed out of the interrogation room. "I know he knows something, but we need the right person to get through to him." the powerful man glanced across the room, his eyes stopping and one individual. "Reid, can you give it a shot?"

"Sure." the six-foot-one man stood from his chair and placed down his documents. "I'll observe his behavior asking certain questions. This may lead to where his knowledge is greatest." Dr. Reid walked into the dark room, freezing at the figure in front of him. He could pick it out in a room of 10000 people. He was the man who had no heart, or soul, or anything in between.

"You're not going to break me." the voice taunted. Reid began taking slow steps towards the chair on the opposite side of the table, and slowly sat down.

"Gregory Gerone." the words were as venom on his tongue. He despised his man more than anyone he had ever formally met in his life. Gregory's eyes widened in recognition of the federal agent sitting with him, and a cocky smirk emerged on his face.

"Dr. Spencer Reid. Seems like you finally made a name for yourself, didn't you?" his words were dark and smooth. "A little genius boy like you, haven't you found a cure to save that animal you call your mother?" Spencer's fists clinched, and he gripped the side of the chair. He knew that there must have had the team watching from outside, because as soon as his mother was brought up, Agent Derek Morgan walked in, standing in front of the closed door with his arms closed. Spencer nodded to his partner before returning his green eyes to his subject.

"I don't remember the last time I saw you." the genius stated. "I clearly remember the last time I heard you, though. There was a lot of crashing, and screaming, and the next morning, there were two bodies in the house and you were gone." he leaned back and crossed his legs. "See, you are a monster. I can pin you for the murders of at least one person that night, and attempt at two. You are a dead man, Gerone, you have nothing to lose."

"There is not a chance that you can pin those on me." Gerone shrugged. "The only witnesses were a mentally insane woman and her 14-year-old son. It was late and nothing is reliable. And anyway, they were both suicides." Spencer leaned in and gripped the other side of the table.

"That 14 year old boy was wide awake, sitting outside your house trying to save his best friend, also known as your daughter who was never enough for you. Even at 12 years old she was never has loved as Madison. They were both great girls who would have amounted to great things. Yes, your oldest daughter committed suicide, and it was you and your drinking that brought it on, and you loved her enough, and felt guilty enough that it made you go insane and kill your wife. Now tell me, where's your other daughter?" Spencer's voice was quick, and angry. Morgan could tell he was ready to burst at any moment, so he was ready to step in if either one of them snapped.

"You're wrong. I was yelling in panic. Both my wife and my only daughter committed suicide." Spencer shook his head.

"Only daughter?" he nodded. The sly smirk reappeared, and Spencer hand to imagine nails keeping his attached to every part of his chair in order to keep him from pounding the old man into mud. "Where. Is. Julia?" Gerone leaned in close, and whispered to Spencer.

"I killed her, too." the young agent could feel his blood boil, and gripped the table until his knuckles were numb. "First I kept her at the barn behind my house for a while, just to shut her up, then she ended up dead. Don't worry, it was quick though." Gerone smiled, and leaned looked straight into Reid's eyes. "Just a single shot... Pow... right to the head." the statement was finalized with the action of making a gun with his fingers and shooting it at Spencer, who flinched lightly. "Left her there to rot afterwards. I only had to deal with the damn girl for two months." Spencer had enough, he leaned in close and whispered.

"Rot in hell."

The two FBI agents stormed out of the room, Spencer so enraged that he walked right over to a wall and punched it as hard as he could, nearly breaking it in the process. "Reid!" Morgan yelled, snapping his friend out of the fit of rage.

"I hate that son of a bitch!" the young agent yelled. "He made my best friends life a living hell for 12 years!" Rossi urgently walked over after hearing the interview.

"She's out of her misery now." the older man urged, trying to calm his friend down. Reid took a seat and placed his head in his hands, shaking for a few moments before sitting up.

"I think I got it." Reid snapped up. "Our missing girls... they all look like Madison did. Green eyes, 17 years old, light brown hair and around five-foot-five." he walked up to the board.

"You're the only one who's following." Emily sighed, sitting at the computer and quietly overhearing the entire thing.

"I just have to think of who was close enough to the family. Gerone mentioned a barn, which is where Julia was killed... now who would have enough rage to take girls who look like Madison?" Spencer paced as the rest of the team stayed silent, and he got on the phone. "Garcia. Can you look up residency of Gregory Gerone 16 years ago?" there was clicking, and then Garcia's voice rang through.

"156 Ford Street, Las Vegas." she said.

"Okay try 15." she typed again, this time coming up with a different answer.

"Grayers Ranch, Mississippi." Spencer wrote it down. It was the crime scene that they were called too just three short days ago where the most recent owner found two bodies lying in his field.

"Okay, so he obviously doesn't live there anymore, but who's he sell it to?" more typing, and a different answer.

"Joshua Gerone." she said nervously. "Gregory's brother." Spencer nodded his head, and turned to his team.

"That's our unsub! Thanks' Garcia!" he hung up the phone and went to the whiteboard. "It all makes sense now! Gregory Gerone came drunk to find his daughter, Julia, and wife, Claire in their home. After a little searching he found that his oldest daughter, Madison, had hung herself after so many years of verbal abuse. Because he was drunk, he went on a rampage. Julia suffered from the first round of abuse from her angry father who seemed to be blaming everyone, logical cause, and locked her doors. That's when I came over and went to see her after being awoken by something breaking. She sent me away after I saw her beat up face and that was the last time I ever saw her. I ran home and called 911, and I heard their family car drive away and the cop cars came two minutes later, revealing his dead wife and daughter. He then took off to Mississippi, where he bought a ranch, and then allegedly killed his daughter after holding so much hatred towards her for no reason at all, and then moved a week after and sold the ranch to his brother. Now, Madison and Julia's uncle was around all the time, and was always with Madison. Julia always said how the two were unseparatable. My theory now was that the killings were some sort of demonstration for Joshua to show his brother time and time again what he was doing to these poor girls. I think it was the hatred to Gregory." everyone had a clearer understanding now, and nodded in agreement.

"So it's not Gregory?" JJ asked.

"No. I can pin him for the murder of his wife, but that's it." Reid concluded. "Gregory was a good man when he was sober, just was angry when he was drunk. One night he had too many beers. This work was done by a man with much more hatred. And anyway, why kill your daughter over and over and over again? It makes no sense."

"You think that all these missing people are the work of this man?" everyone looked at the list of 47 missing people over the span of 16 years.

"I do, and sadly, I know we aren't going to find a single one alive."

_Evil is always devising more corrosive misery through man's restless need to exact revenge out of his hate. -Ralph Steadman_


	2. Chapter 2

After working with Spencer Reid, you find it rare when he is wrong. The team of agents recognized this as they watched Crime Scene Investigators dig of the remains of dozens of girls, and witnessing the arrest of the monster who created such a thing. "How'd you know?" Emily asked. The sound of pouring rain over the crime scene was overwhelming, but didn't stop the people hard at work doing their jobs.

"I just realized I knew all along." the young man sighed, and dug his hands deep in his pockets. Derek Morgan turned to his friend, and sent a worried expression.

"Listen, we're all sorry about Julia." he said. Reid's eyes popped up, and he shrugged. "How close were you with the poor girl?"

"I was 2 when she was born. Our mom's would have coffee and I would sit there with this little tiny baby in my arms, while Madison, who was 5 at the time, looked after us." Spencer explained, not worrying about his body becoming sobbing wet. "We would always be there for each-other. My mom loved her, and whenever her dad would come home angry, Julia would come over. Madison would always stay behind and make sure everything was okay, Madison was extremely mentally strong,"

"More so than Julia?" JJ asked.

"Both of them had great masks." Reid reflected. "Always caring about others before themselves. I remember once when Julia slept over, and we had stayed up really late the night before so she slept in. I went in and saw her, and her pillow as covered in this beige color and I realized it was make-up. When she woke up, I saw she had bruises all over her face. At first she tried to lie, but I am really good at picking up when people do that so I saw through it. Then she explained how her father would hit her and her sister, and Madison had learned how to do make-up and made sure they were set before they left the house."

_"Dad's away on business." Julia said weakly as we walked down the stairs to her basement and into her room. "We're safe here for now. Mom's upstairs sleeping, and Madison's at a friend's house." it was the last day of May, and she and Spencer were getting together to relax before she had to start studying for finals, and he would help her. _

_"Is everything alright? You seem... off." Spencer examined, sitting in the bean-bag chair._

_"Yah, I'm fine." Julia nodded, and sat on her bed. He could tell she had no intentions of leaving her house. Her face was make-up free, and her t-shirt and capris were showing off all of the cuts and bruises on her legs._

_"How about the rest of your family? I haven't seen anyone around here lately." she bit her bottom lip, a sure tell that she was debating truth versus lie in her head._

_"My mom sleeps a lot." Julia's soft voice said quietly. "I don't know, I mean I love her to death but she doesn't actually raise us anymore. And my sister... there's something wrong with her."_

_"What do you mean?" Julia stood up and guided Spencer to the other downstairs bedroom, and went into the bottom drawer of her sister's room, and pulled out a bag of all different types of prescription pills and drugs. "Good god."_

_"This family is falling apart." a small tear slipped down her face. "To be honest, mom has been sleeping for four days straight, every so often I hear footsteps to the bathroom, but that's about it. And Madison hasn't been home in over 2 weeks. Last time I saw her it was when dad was home. She climbed through a window, took a bag much larger than this one, and ran off again." one tear turned into another, and soon they were pooling in her eyes and streaming down her cheeks._

_"Julia, I am so sorry!" he leaned forward and gave his best friend a hug as she shook in his arms. While holding her, he imagined what it would be like sitting on the sunny porch with her in his small arms, sitting beside a young Madison as the two of them ate popsicles._

_He imagined Madison's short brown hair with straight bangs, pink t-shirt and loose, knee-length jean shorts. He imagined the innocence that she once radiated with, the young girl who's only evil was the strange actions that her father sometimes did when he would come home a very different person. Her innocence in believing everything in the world was good, and nothing was going to hurt her._

_He grew up with Julia, always surrounded with love from her mother and sister. She was the one that could also bring a smile to anyone's face at any time. She loved performing and being very active, and Spencer always knew he was lucky to grow up with such an influence._

_Twelve short years later, they weren't just hitting rock bottom, they were blowing past it over, and over, and over again. Just when nobody thought it could get any worse, of course it did. "Come home with me!" Spencer urged suddenly. Julia pulled away._

_"I couldn't possibly." she stated. "I'm sorry but I have to wait here for my sister to come home, and make sure my mom is alright."_

_"We can get your mom help, and find your sister! Julia we have to get out of here! I can't bear the thought of your dad coming home again and hurting you like he did before." she shook her head at his words._

_"My house, your house. It's all the same. It's going to happen sooner or later but I am strong enough to take it. You don't have to worry, I'm not your responsibility."_

_"Jules, you're twelve years old! You're too young to have no help raising yourself. Like it or not, I am here and I am never going to let you go." she ran back into his arms and hung onto him for dear life, as if the second she let go, he would vanish into midair and never come back._

_For the rest of the day, homework was forgotten, and Julia got her first good sleep in ages. Spencer lay beside her, reading his thick book while his thick glasses were perched on his face._

_She moved lightly, and scooted next to him, and he lay a cover over them both. "Mom would understand if I didn't come home." he thought, and scooted down beside her._

_He looked down from his book to see that her eyes were open, and she was looking up at him with her deep green eyes. "Are you staying?" he nodded. "Good, I need a good sleep for once." she sighed, and scooted closer to the heat._

_"Shhh... close your eyes." confused, she did what she was told, immidiently feeling the effects of extreme fatuige dragging over her body. She knew she would be safe, though. The room was dimming as the sun was going down, and for the first time for as long as she could remember, she knew that she would be alright, at least for the duration of time he spent beside her. No one could hurt her now._

_As she drifted quickly, she imagined herself the next morning, waking up with all of her scars and bruises gone, to a freshly baked breakfast by her happy mother, who kissed her husband off to work and adjusted his tie. She wished that Madison would be off to school, finishing off eleventh grade, and herself finishing off sixth. _

_Although none of that would happen, she knew that come the time when morning light shown through her window, she would remain as safe and sound that she is right now, cuddled up to her._

The team walked into the BAU headquarters after a long flight back. None of them had any intentions of staying, it was usually like that after not a single person was saved, but Spencer knew that there was something that had to be done. He walked quickly into Penelope Garcia's office and shut the door quickly, startling her. "G-man you scared the hell out of me!"

"Sorry Garcia. I do need a favor from you, though." he requested.

"Make it quick, doll face. I'm tired and I want to go home." Spencer pulled up a stool and scooted towards the exhausted blonde.

"I need you to search up a name for me. Julia Gerone." her fingers went to work quickly, and soon a face, just like the one he remembered from around the last time he saw her, popped up, and he felt his heart drop.

"Uhh... Julia Marie Gerone. Born in Las Vegas, Nevada. Born on February 17th 1984. So she would be... 28 right now." she continued scrolling through the information.

"Any death certificates?" Garcia shook her head.

"I got a birth one, but that just shows that this girl popped out of the wound... but there is a missing person's report." he opened the file. "Apparently she went out for a walk and never came back." Spencer looked at it closely.

"Who filed it?"

"Uhhh... a woman by the name of Jolene Franks."

"Aunt Jolene! Kay thanks Garcia! Have a nice night!" he grabbed his sweater and walked out, seeing that everyone was already gone for the evening. Once he was settled and home, Spencer grabbed his phone and his old number book, picking out the number he knew what their Aunt Jolene's, and dialing it, though the only sound he got was the monotone voice saying the number was disconnected.

That's as far as it went. The next day Spencer showed up at work and there was no discussion about the Gerone case, but it just continued right on into the next set of brutal murders to face their day.

_"If he find out I'm over here, he'll kill me." Julia warned as she and Spencer were sitting in the closet of his room, and he was fixing her up after another one of her father's brutal beatings._

_"He won't, don't worry. The average alcoholic has trouble keeping up with himself, let alone someone else. You said Madison is out, right?" she nodded. "Just say you went with her." the eleven year old girl nodded, and she was finally taped up. She leaned back with a sigh against the wall of the stuffy space, and listened carefully to the sound of Christmas Carols playing through the house. _

_"I wish I celebrated Christmas like this..." her voice was soft and quiet, her eyes sad as they made contact with her best friend's._

_"Just stay and have Christmas with us." Spencer suggested, and quietly opened the closet door, allowing more air in. It was Christmas Eve, and you could tell by the atmosphere of the Reid household. _

_"I can't. Daddy will kill me." he could tell by her voice that she really wanted to stay, but couldn't._

_"Why do you call him that?" Spencer snapped. "A daddy isn't someone who hits their children and makes them terrified."_

_"Daddy loves me, he just also loves his beer. When he drinks he gets angry." he noticed her lip twitch, and decided to drop the subject._

_"You should go home..." he said sadly. "It's almost dark."_

_"Yeah." she leaned forward and the two stood their hugging for a while. "Goodnight, Mr. Reid." she leaned up and kissed his cheek before scurrying out the back door and across the grass to her house and back through her window. _

_What a life._

**I promise it gets better than this! Please review and let me know your thoughts!**

**m.E**


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